Lapsing Into Oblivion

The darkness does not lift but becomes yet heavier as I think how little we can hold in mind…

Regents Canal, Lisson Grove, Westminster, NW8

…how everything is constantly lapsing into oblivion with every extinguished life, how the world is, as it were, draining itself…

Leake Street, Waterloo, Lambeth, SE1

…in that the history of countless places and objects which themselves have no power or memory is never heard, never described or passed on.

Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, Hackney, N16

From WG Sebald’s Austerlitz (2001)

Tense and Silent

We gather in cemeteries, tense and silent as if for listening for the impact; the splash of a pebble dropped into a dark well, trying to measure its depth.

Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, Hackney, N16

Trying to measure how far we have to fall. No impact comes; no splash. The moment passes. The world turns and we turn away, getting on with our lives…

Kensal Green Cemetery, Ladbrooke Grove, Kensington & Chelsea, NW10

Wrapping ourselves in comforting banalities to keep us warm against the cold. “Time’s a great healer.” “At least it was quick.” “The world keeps turning.”

Highgate Cemetery, Swains Lane, Highgate, Camden, N6

From Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing

Azizye Camii

I don’t dream of a perfect mosque, only
a few square inches of ground…

Azizye Camii, Stoke Newingon Road, Hackney , N16

…that will welcome my forehead,
no questions asked

From Mohja Kahf’s My Little Mosque (2003)